When marketers try to come up with new content marketing ideas, they often look for different approaches with the content itself; but sometimes what sets your content apart from that of your competition lies in the “where” of content, not the “what”. A Facebook Group might be just the “where” you need to take the effectiveness of your content to the next level.
Right now you might be thinking, “How can tradies use Facebook groups to market their business?”
A Group provides a way for so-called “small” groups of people (many Facebook Groups have tens of thousands of members) to gather and communicate around a shared interest. Many businesses are able to create a Facebook group around a topic that is directly related to their business. For example, a life coach might create a group around the topic of life skills, etc. A tradie, on the other hand, would be better served if they created a group around a topic that is indirectly related to their business. For example, a home builder might create a group around the topic of interior design; or a gardener might create a group around the topic of hardscape design. The idea for tradies is to create a group that would be of interest to people in their target market.
When you create a Group, you’ll have the option of making it publicly available for anyone to join, or private so that only accepted members can view posts. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, private is actually the best option for marketing purposes because members of private groups are more qualified as prospects than the internet public at large.
Here are 3 ways to use a Facebook Group as a content marketing tool:
1. Actively Engage Members
The first purpose of a Facebook Group is member engagement. But your interaction with group members is also a form of content. In fact, when you view it through an inbound marketing lens, engagement is the best form of content there is because the third-party reader is able to see the real you in action, engaging with other members.
2. Test Content
A basic rule in digital marketing is to test. We’re all aware of the concept of A/B testing where we test the results of, say, two different emails to see which one achieves the best click-through rate. But have you ever done focus-group type content testing? Well, a Facebook group is a great place to ask people’s opinion about a content idea, or even a particular piece of content.
3. Uncover New Content Ideas
By monitoring the comments and conversations of other group members and engaging with members yourself, you’ll often find new ideas for blog and social media content. Look for what sort of content generates the most interaction and buzz within the group, then use those insights to help guide your future content direction and decisions.
The ideas we’ve outlined here should give you a good head-start in using Facebook Groups as a content marketing tool. We invite you to contact us today for more ideas on how to improve your content marketing. We also invite you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.